Every day, the straight heterosexist hegemony manages to find new ways to assert its dominance over all who do not share its presumptions.
Today, hangers on the back of an hotel room door.
Every day something different.
4 responses to “Politics of Pilgrimage”
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Living in Ireland – at one time not too far from Knock – it always astonished me when driving through the village how those who had just visited the shrine seemed to think that it had made them invincible! They’d wander into the middle of the road and totally ignore the traffic streaming around them!
A bottle of Knock holy water in the shape of Our Lady sits behind me as I type – next to a similar one from Lourdes and a knitted Orangeman bedecked with a collarette proclaiming him a member of LOL 1, Portadown! The juxtaposition is deliberate! (I wonder if + David has one on his shelves from the "support Drumcree" shop?!)
Which leads to the question "How do holy water taps work?" – theologically, that is! What is blessed to make it holy? Is it the reservoir (but that is constantly replenished and so eventually, after being diluted for a long time, the water becomes "unholy". Is it the tap itself and the water is sanctified by passing through it?
Discuss!
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Holy Water Taps
Perhaps the water becomes holy when it is applied by the believer to the cat. -
Holy water and questions about pilgrimage
Hmmm, yes I can see the dilemma…I guess the female ordaindees (not a word really, apologies for my attack on the English language) are excluded – though would it be possible to construct a small al fresco altar and hold a ceremony of your own? Pilgrimage places become so because people believe something, not just the ecclesiastical hierarchy, I think? If we don’t go then it is like saying ‘ok, you have that site of devotion then’. (Yikes I sound so serious, which I am, but I really do mean my statements to come out as questions…not commands.)
As to the cat, holy water, and the believer – maybe all the water is holy and we just think we play a role in making it so? Alternatively, maybe the cat is the believer and the water is transformed through a great mysterious purr.
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The Cat in Question
As for the cat in question, she is not a believer as such. Rather, she thinks that she is the only proper object of veneration.
Previous Posts
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Flower Petals
Flower petals for the Corpus Christi procession can be handed in at the Cathedral Office (3 Napiershall Street) today or handed in just before the service tonight, which starts at 7.30 pm.
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Corpus
We are celebrating Corpus Christi on Thursday and it will be the first time we’ve celebrated it with a Choral Eucharist in a long time. I noticed about a year ago that we were doing better at keeping the more introspective and gloomy feasts than the glorious. We were doing well at repenting of our…
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UnGlee
Anyone else think that last night’s documentary on reliquaries, though glorious, was no substitute for Glee on a Monday evening?
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Evensong (with Dragons)
Quite an exhilarating Choral Evensong last night. Three ribbons to give out to young choristers to indicate their achievements and then straight into an exciting musical service. The psalm was 148, which is one of my favourites, particularly in the setting that they sing here. In common with very many choral churches, we usually sing…
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